Russell's Email 10-28-10

Hello! How's it going? Wow, exciting stuff... Let me tell ya all about it!

I decided on Sunday that I wanted to stay in Warm Springs for my last transfer. About 10 minutes after I decided that, ring ring ring ring "Hello Elder Hitchcock, this is Elder F.! Just wanted to let ya know, YOU'RE HAVING A BOY!!!" So I'm training again, which also means I am leaving Warm Springs... I swallowed hard and said okay.

Then Monday night, ring ring ring "Elder Hitchcock, this is President. I wanted to thank you for your great loving service as a zone leader. You will always stick out in my mind for the loving leadership you have given in this mission. (I should have recognized he was building me up.) The Lord has assigned you to be a district leader in your new area. Will you do that?" "President, training, double transfer, and district leader? (sigh) I'll do whatever you need me to do."

Then comes to the trainers meeting before transfer conference. President comes in and starts talking to us and he told us, "Some of you will have very different assignments. (looking right at me) Some of you will be training spanish speaking missionaries in english areas. Actually, let me correct that, some of you will be training Tongan missionaries in English areas." (still looking right at me) So then I got my new companion. Elder V. fresh off the boat (or airplane) from Tonga. He knew Elder P. Sweet yeah? We are having fun, but it's a unique assignment because he is still learning english.

So, now I'm in Mesquite. Opening a new area that was split from an existing area. Sam, remember the hotel we stayed at in Mesquite on the way to Las Vegas for the basketball tournament? Well, I live really close to there. My area is just east of the first Mesquite exit and I cover all the way to the Utah border under St. George. There's nothing past Littlefield (the towns immediately after the Gorge). We cover a neighborhood in NV but then the rest of our area (Scenic, Littlefield, Jone's Flat, etc.) all in AZ.

There isn't a ton of work going on, and we spent almost all day yesterday getting the area organized and trying to get some direction. Our area is pretty spread out. Littlefield ward (littlefield, beaver dam, Jone's flat, desert springs) is about 10 miles away and Scenic (part of Mesquite 2) is about 5 miles away) so we will really have to work smart and work hard. I wanted to start working really smart before I started working super hard. so we got that under control and now we are moving forward.

Well, this first week is going really well and we are ready to work really hard. We will have a good time and be able to accomplish a lot. The info that I received was that my two wards were kind of neglected because the missionaries before were covering 4 wards, and so I think we can give them a lot of attention. So, sorry I don't have much to report on right now because I don't have much knowledge about what's going on.... lol

So my place I live in is pretty cool. We live in a members basement. We have a pool table, ping pong, darts, a movie theatre (I want to get an investigator to have a lesson with the members we live with and watch a movie down there.) It's nice, we have granite counter tops and it's just sweet. We have a Chevy Colorado pick up. It's a pretty good deal we have going on. I'm loving it.

So that's about all I got! I hope that things are going well at home. I love ya'll lots and I hope that ya'll have a great week!